1/17/09

Do you like this story?

Nanopowders are powders composed of nanoparticles having an average diameter below 50 nanometers and many a time below 30 nm. True nanoparticles exist as free to move relative to each other and accordingly when not in liquid suspension resemble like smoke particles. This can be imagined physically that, a jar of a true nanopowder when emptied from one meter height to toward the ground will disperse into the air before reaching the floor. It is said that most manufacturers of “nanopowders” produce micropowder assemblies of nanoparticles but the powder itself is rarely a nanopowder. A complex nanopowder is a nanopowder where each individual particle is composed of a complex chemical compound. Such compounds have two or more different cations (positively charged elements) in their chemical formula. An example of a complex compound is calcium titanate (CaTiO3). For every application of nanopowders having simple (single cation) composition, there can be more than 100 applications for nanopowders having complex composition (multi cation). A small list of commercially available nanopowder compositions is as below: